The BlackBerry is now dead, but not the way you think
Two days ago, Shichao saw the news that the BlackBerry mobile phone was dead. Some friends may say that it has announced its withdrawal from the mobile phone market a long time ago. Indeed wailing. . But to be precise, this time, it was truly lying in the coffin. Because starting today (January 4th), BlackBerry 7.1 OS, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1, and earlier versions will terminate the service.
In human terms, you can’t make calls, text messages, or connect to the Internet. Apart from being a brick wall for self-defense (physical level), that’s completely useless. . In fact, when it comes to BlackBerry, you must be most impressed by its super recognizable shape and its security that is known as the “strongest on the surface”. In 2012, TrendMicro (the global leader in network security software and services) integrated the evaluation standards of systems and firewalls in its business security assessment and scored the four major mobile phone operating systems. In the end, the BlackBerry 7 system scored 2.89 points and ranked first. At that time, iOS5 scored 1.7, WindowsPhone 7.5 scored 1.61 points, and Android 2.3 scored the bottom with 1.37 points.
It can be said that when someone asked which brand of mobile phone was the safest, BlackBerry said it was second, but no one dared to say it was the first. This is due to BlackBerry’s unique encryption system. From mobile phone design to hardware support, to software adaptation, everything is security-centric. Give a chestnut. When sending a message with a BlackBerry phone, it will be encrypted by the algorithm and transmitted to its own data center, and then transmitted to the recipient through the operator. The most frustrating part of this process is that each BlackBerry device and server uses a different key. This is not enough. In order to pursue the ultimate security, BlackBerry has turned the server into a one-way export. With the previous encryption algorithm and hardware key, not only is it difficult to invade from the outside, even BlackBerry itself cannot provide the government with a way to monitor mail.
It is precise because of the military-level encryption technology of the BlackBerry that ensures the safety of users, it has become the first choice of political and business people, and its market share in the United States reached 48% at its peak. But security alone is useless. In the era of the rise of Android and iOS, the BlackBerry screen is too small, the software is too few, and the system is not used to it. Who wants to buy it? Buying it to quit Internet addiction is almost the same. . As a result, from 2009 to 2013, the BlackBerry mobile phone market quickly dropped from 42% of the market share to 3.5%. In 2016, it dropped to the bottom, and the mobile phone market share was rounded to zero.
Although BlackBerry was actively transforming in the future, it was too late to recover, and finally announced its withdrawal from the mobile phone market. That’s what happened today, however, don’t be too embarrassed, although BlackBerry has fallen in the mobile phone market, people have mixed it up in the car market, hum haha. In 2010, BlackBerry acquired a software company called QNX, mainly developing operating systems on cars. I have to say that BlackBerry’s good vision back then gave it away to survive. Speaking of which you may not believe, BlackBerry’s QNX system has a market share of 75% in the automotive market. What Audi, BMW, Buick, what Porsche, Hummer, Ford (hereafter omitting hundreds of brands), most of the world’s car brands, nearly 195 million cars have adopted systems based on QNX technology.
You may be wondering, what does this QNX have on earth? Why not use open source Android and Linux systems, but still freely customize functions. Let’s put it this way, if there is a problem with the mobile phone system, just restart it. But there is a problem with the car system, it is not a restart, we may have to restart. . Therefore, safety and stability are always the first elements that automakers consider when building systems, even if fluency and new features are omitted.
(This is also one of the reasons why many car and machine systems are relatively old.) Before the BlackBerry acquisition, QNX was known for its safety and stability. After being acquired by BlackBerry, which is also known for its “safety”, World Super could only describe it in one sentence: Qin Shihuang touched the wires-he won the numbness! A survey has shown that the number of vulnerabilities verified to have backdoors in the Android system exceeds 1,500 each year, the Linux system has between 200 and 500, and the BlackBerry QNX has never exceeded 5. If I were a car manufacturer, I would also choose QNX technology for safety reasons. Of course, more and more manufacturers choose QNX because QNX can adapt to the development of the times. Automated functions in a car are controlled by the “car brain” ECU.
Now there may be hundreds of ECUs in a car, responsible for different automated functions. With the rise of autonomous driving in the past two years, to achieve different assisted driving functions, whether it is the cooperation between various sensors or radars, the ECU system must not have any problems. In the traditional kernel, a crash of an application service may cause the entire system to freeze. However, QNX is designed with a micro-kernel, which can isolate various components without affecting the stability of each other and can ensure the stable operation of the system. Moreover, the QNX system is open. If automakers want to add some new features, they don’t need to overthrow the previous system and redo it, just add it directly. Of course, what’s even more powerful is that QNX has also launched a virtual machine platform in the past few years, which allows multiple ECUs to be installed on the same system, and it also supports running Linux and Android systems.
This is like installing an Android emulator on your computer, which not only ensures computer security but also provides a wealth of applications and games, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. It is precise with these advantages that BlackBerry QNX technology has become popular in the automotive industry. It should be said or not, because of the pursuit of security and the blockade system, BlackBerry phones are gradually being eliminated by the rich ecological Android. However, it never expected that, also because of the pursuit of safety and stability, BlackBerry began to dominate the auto market and continued its life. . Perhaps, the obsession with safety is really only suitable for certain industries. This time, I hope BlackBerry can seize the opportunity and stop being eliminated by the times.
Research Snipers is currently covering all technology news including Google, Apple, Android, Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung News, and More. Research Snipers has decade of experience in breaking technology news, covering latest trends in tech news, and recent developments.
